cleaver

American  

[klee-ver] / ˈkli vər /

noun

• cleavers
  plural

1. a heavy, broad-bladed knife or long-bladed hatchet, especially one used by butchers for cutting meat into joints or pieces.

2. a person or thing that cleaves.

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cleaver British  

/ ˈkliːvə /

noun

1. a heavy knife or long-bladed hatchet, esp one used by butchers

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cleaver Scientific  

/ klē′vər /

1. A bifacial stone tool flaked to produce a straight, sharp, relatively wide edge at one end. Cleavers are early core tools associated primarily with the Acheulian tool culture.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cleavers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cleaver

First recorded in 1325–75, cleaver is from the Middle English word clevere. See cleave ², -er ¹

Explanation

A cleaver is a large knife, used mainly by butchers. The blade of a cleaver is big and square. To cut a steak, you need a good, sharp knife. To cut larger parts of meat, you need something even more powerful: a cleaver (or chopper). Cleavers have fat, square blades and are used for cutting large hunks of meat. It can help you remember the meaning of this word if you know that to cleave is to separate. If you're not a butcher, you probably have no use for a cleaver (unless you're a villain in a horror movie).

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cleaver cleavers

"You can see it as a domestic narrative and then you can see it as a jumbo meat cleaver".

From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026

So it is that I gained life lessons from a kitchen knife: a 1-pound, 8.6-inch carbon-steel Chinese cleaver I picked up on a whim in Lower Manhattan.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025

Instead of crossed swords, a butcher’s knife, a cleaver and a honing steel cross behind a crest with paintings of a wheel of cheese, a lobster, a bottle of wine, a head of cattle.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024

They play with the locks on your door while you are napping and cleaver banana plants in the middle of the night.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

Bunny sidled up to me and whispered, “Did you see the big meat cleaver tattoo on his chest?”

From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos

Then comes the sound, clams tossed in hot pans, cleavers pounding roast pork, a Cantonese rock ballad barely rising above the crowd.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

"Beryl was like a surprise attack, like an ambush," says Cornelius, in a deep baritone voice, over the market's chatter, reggae and thwack of cleavers on chopping boards.

From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024

Kinmen is now known for the production of meat cleavers carved out of strewn artillery shells.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 3, 2022

A tall, sleek, metal-and-glass table, like something from a science lab or hospital operating room, is festooned with eight meat cleavers suspended on elegant chains, four dangling from either side.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2019

At the end of every day, the butchers lovingly cleaned and stored their knives and cleavers, the tools of their trade.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield